Recent bond auction to provide temporary relief: PEW

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said recent bond auction worth $2.5 billion will provide temporary relief to the struggling government. Sustainable development requires a difficult path of meaningful reforms which are being ignored due to political considerations, it said.

Prime Minister Abbasi’s government continue to rely on loans to keep the country afloat like his predecessor Nawaz Sharif who acquired 35 billion dollars of loans to return previous loans, finance some projects, keep forex reserves in shape and gove impression of economic stability, said PEW President Dr Murtaza Mughal. He said that the Nawaz government acquired $17 billion of loans to repay loans which is a record while it got loans over $10 billion in one year which is also a record.

Dr Murtaza said that burden of loans increased by 30 percent during the era of Nawaz Sharif while the assets of politicians also increased in which the assets of former finance minister Ishar Dar increased 91 times, another record.

The former finance minister played a very important role in pushing the country into the debt trap while the current government is also following the same path by ignoring reforms and getting loans which will not resolve the problems, he added.

The total loans have increased by 67.2 percent of the total national output which will have a very negative impact, he said, adding that the government should not devalue the currency to please some exporters.